Strength vs Vitality while leveling

[Bashum]

As I was leveling up, I saved my money, and melded one or two vit materia to each str accessory. Best of both worlds imo, and melding 1 or 2 isn't prohibitively expensive.

[winsock]

Um. What kind of DF are you queuing for? Cause I want in on that. In my experience, tanks get the most crap for doing anything wrong.

Pacing and threat tanks get crap for. No disagreements there.

I was talking more about the mechanical penalties.
Getting hit by a couple avoidable aoes
Doing some stupid + dieing.
Not holding threat.

While leveling, there are usually pretty minor party-wide consequences for these. This as opposed to say, a healer failing to dodge the same AoEs, dieing, and causing a wipe.

[Warlyx]

im levling drk , from 30-50 i went with whatever it dropped , after 50 im using a mix ,full str for low lvl dungeons tho... for HW dungeons VIT and change to STR if im not dropping below 50% ever (so far healers have been good enough)

in the end varies if the dungeon is easy and the healer is good STR all the way

if the healer is meh ,and u are almost dying every other pull vit

[Februs]

I haven't done many dungeons as a GLD but I have been putting my points in VIT because healers have less big heals in their toolkit at this level...but I'm having problems holding threat.

If you're speaking specifically about Pld tanking, than this is not at all unheard of and is caused by an unfortunate design flaw (or perhaps an intentional one that a lot of people tend to disagree agree with).

A lot of Pld's typically fall into this problem around lvl's 20's-40's, because, unlike War, Pld is not granted their Tank stance until lvl 40, Flash is weaker than Overpower, and the enmity multiplier on their RoH combo is much lower than War's Butcher's Block combo. RoH is never fixed (sadly), so you'll need to work around that, but Shield Oath will grant you roughly double your enmity. When you hit lvl 40, do the quest to get this stance ASAP. Until then you will be struggling to hold enmity unless you over-gear the content you are running.

Whereas I don't recommend going full Str, stacking Str accessories will boost the effectiveness of Flash. So you don't really have a choice but to use at least some Str. What's more important, though, is working your rotation and splitting your enmity across multiple targets.

[Februs]

Any advice would be appreciated!

For mob pull rotations, Pld's should not be focusing on a single target and hoping Flash holds peripheral aggro. It's their instinct in most cases (since Flash hits everything). Instead try something like this:

Pre-RoH combo/SwO: Open with Shield Lob > Flash (x2 usually at the start) > Flash Blade (same target as Shield lob) > Savage Blade (new target) > Flash > Fast Blade (current target) > Savage Blade (new target) > Flash > etc.

The idea is to alternate the bonus enmity of SB so that you hit as many targets with it as possible. Additional Flashes are necessary, since your SB enmity multiplier is lower than War's.

After RoH/SwO: Shield lob > Flash (using 2 Flash casts here may be necessary when in Sword Oath, as your enmity is lower) > Fast Blade (on the target you hit with Shield Lob) > Flash > Savage Blade (on an alternate target) > RoH (return to first target if you think you're going to lose hate. If not, switch to another alternate) > Flash > repeat RoH combo as necessary, always choosing targets for SB and RoH on an enmity basis.

The idea here is that every single "grants additional enmity" move should be hitting a new target so that you don't lose hate between Flash casts. After your initial rotation, RoH should be the move you want to rotate across your targets the most so you can spread the Str down debuff as widely as possible, but it really depends on what your Dps are doing. You really have to pay attention to which targets they are attacking, and use SB and RoH accordingly. If they're hitting 2 out of 3 of your targets, one Savage Blade or RoH is usually enough for the odd target out. The rest of your combo should be expended on the targets taking the most dmg.

Another advanced tip that might help you with this is to be sure to check the enmity meter's next to everyone's names every now and again, especially if you think you have an Op Dps who is likely to steal hate. Every specific target gets their own meter, so when you swap targets take a quick peek at the party list. The change for meters might be delayed a little based on latency, but if you're worried about someone specific stealing aggro (like an overpowered Blm spamming AoE attacks), this is a good way to keep an eye on how close they are to stealing hate. "A" with a full meter means full hate. Everyone else gets 2-4 (or 2-8 for 8 man parties). The person you want to keep an eye on is "2." If their meter is near full on a target than they are close to stealing hate, and you may have to pop an extra flash or devote a RoH to that target.

Pld's require a lot more attention and focus when mob tanking (unlike Boss tanking, in which War's are the most complex), so you'll have to be on the ball. Hope this information helps.

[Jpec07]

Vitality will generally make your healers happy, especially if you're in questing/leveling gear.

If you're worried about mitigation, don't. Just stay in your tanking stance and use/rotate your cooldowns, and regardless of anything else, you'll be able to take the hits.

I realized recently that the whole discussion of Parry/Vit vs. DPS/Str is over what essentially amounts to trivial amounts of mitigation, which is a quirk of how tanking is designed in this game. Your gear has very little impact on your ability to survive, overall, and the overwhelming majority of your ability to mitigate damage comes from your cooldowns and abilities.

Still, while leveling, for mitigation, the priority goes something like:

PDef >= MDef > Vit >= Str > (Crit = Det = SkSpd) > Parry > others

This obviously varies depending on job, but when selecting gear, you'll get more mitigation from the raw defense stats on your armor than you will from any of the other stats the gear holds. Vit and Str are interchangeable - WAR and DRK may have a slight preference for Str for self-healing, while PLD may favor Vit for its interaction with Stoneskin and Divine Veil.

Of course, all of this will be changing in a month or two when 3.2 rolls around and they "change tank damage calculations."

EDIT: Also, for keeping enmity, you'll want to use Flash. A lot. I'd also say that you should use your bonus leveling stats for Str, and rely on gear for Vit.

[Freyyy]

There is no point in using VIT while levelling as long as your left side gear is up to date. The difference in HP is very little, and there is no tank buster in low level dungeons. Full STR or atleast an hybrid set will help you keeping aggro and DPS things a little faster (tho the difference in damage is little too, but not as little as the difference in HP).

[Sapphidia]

tbh, the Str vs Vit debate only really kicks in after level 50 when levelling (or well, at level 50).

As Freyyy said above, level 1-49 the stats you gain on your right side accessories are so minor that it barely makes any difference, and unless you're massively twinking yourself out with the best HQ crafted gear you can make at every level you wont really have a choice. You'll simply wear a selection of the best Str and Vit gear that happens to have dropped for you.

1-49 the thing that makes the biggest difference is simply your LEVEL. Going into Haukke manor at level 28 wearing level 24 whites... compared to going in as a job at level 30 with full level 30 HQs/Greens... it's night and day. If you're on the lower end of the level spectrum of an instance then Str vs Vit isnt really an issue considering you're going to be suffering for both.

My generally recommendation when levelling though is to put all your stat points into Strength, because you'll probably be getting Vitality gear (as when doing dungeons, you can only roll Need on Vitality accessories so naturally should accrue more of them). If you're crafting accessories to use on the run from 1-49, craft Vitality accessories and slot them with a Strength materia.

Post 50 it's really up to you - I'd still say stay Strength in stat points and then just slot on more vitality accessories as you see fit. The problem with new tanks when levelling is simple: when you're downsynched or at the max level for a dungeon, you have such high stats that you're kind of overcapped on both strength AND vit. However, when you're at the minimum level for a dungeon you're not only going to have to play more cautiously due to being squishy but you're probably going to struggle more for threat as you're tanking vs people 1-2 level above you with better gear. You want a mix of both stats really for levelling dungeons. You can never trust that your healer will be good/confidant, but you also can't trust that you might have to tank for people 30-40 ilevels higher than you.

TLDR: just keep all your gear up to date as much as possible, use STR in your bonus stat points, and expect to mostly accrue vitality accessories. But just use a mix depending on whatever drops for you.

[AriaEnia]

1 - 60 paladin full vit here, never once lose agro to dps and healer. Keeping agro in this game is so extremely easy. I often shake my heads if a tank loses agro to dps or healer aside from being overgeared by them, heck even being overgeared, it's still rather easy to keep the agro.

[AriaEnia]

Dang, can't edit on mobile...
People are saying to stack strength for keeping agro, well they're wrong. You don't need any single str to keep the agro. Keeping agro in this game is so easy, you just need to learn your class rotation and how agro works in this game. People are stacking str in tanks none other so they can finish dungeon or trials 2 minutes faster, that's all.